This just in - More honeymoon pics from Italy

We have had a lot of people say they want to see more of our honeymoon pictures from Italy. Today may just be your lucky day since my good friends Mike and Bree got us some of the pictures they took with their camera. The mail system from Italy to Texas must be slow. :) Hope you enjoy.

Mike and I found a playground not far from the apartment we stayed at in Rome. We had to stop and let our inner-children out.

Here Steph and I are throwing a coin into the Trevi fountain. It is key to throw the coin from your right hand over your left shoulder. According to legend, doing so will will ensure that the spirits of Rome will bring you back again.

Kissing at the Trevi fountain!

This is Palentino Hill. You can see the Roman Forum in the background.

Here is the place where Peter and Paul were imprisoned in Rome. The upside-down cross is a symbol of Peter's crucifixion and off to the left of here is the chord in the wall where Peter would have been chained.

Another shot of Palentino Hill. This is ancient Rome, the Rome that Peter and Paul would have known. It was so weird walking around looking at things that these men would have seen.

Just outside the Colosseo (Colosseum) we were "engaged" by the Roman gladiators. They wanted us to pay them 5 Euro (nearly $8) just to take a picture! With a little bit of prodding and starting to walk away, we only paid 3 Euro. It was a lot of fun. They asked if they could keep Steph and Bree...

The Colosseo... "My Favorite Part of Rome"... There was so much history that happened within this awesome monument. I love listening to the stories, learning the mechanics and figuring out the engineering of this place.

As we sat at the small restaurant just above the Colosseo in the loft with windows looking out over not only this great monument, but all of Palentino hill Mike and I couldn't resist the opportunity to make a "Michealangelo" picture...

Dinner that night with the Ivanovs at a little place we found down a side street.

The Colosseo in the background with the Ark of Victory. I forget the exact name, but it is really beautiful.

Here are the infamous Mike and Bree Ivanov in the Caracalla Baths. I watched a History Channel thing on this part of history and it would have been more than words could describe when it was built. It was more than feet could handle for us old tourists that day however. We loved this area.

Here are the frugal newlyweds saving a few dollars only getting one audio guide and trying to both listen in on the history of the Caracalla Baths.

This is inside the Vaticani (Vatican) more specifically St. Peter's Basilica. This is a list of all the Pope's and the year in which they pass away. I never realized there were so many.

Another shot inside St. Peter's.

Here is one of the dead Pope's... I don't know which one he is, but I guess they mummified him.

Inside a shot of the actual Vatican City. The men in the crazy colors are the Pope's Royal guards.

This is out in the St. Peter's Square with the Basilica to the right of the photo. It is a huge square and very beautiful.

Mike and Bree in St. Peter's Square.

The gang with St. Peter's Basilica behind us. What a great day spent with my Russian friend and his wife.

Our Home...

So, I understand that these pictures are in no particular order, but I hope that you enjoy seeing "our new life" here in Texas. As promised, maybe late, but as promised, here are some pictures of our house.

This is the side of our house. It is technically the backyard because our backyard wraps around the side of our house and that gate on the left leads to the front yard. The windows (starting at the largest window to the left) is our Master Bedroom, then the office has the next two windows and finally the spare bedroom is the last window near the gate.
This is the front of our house. It was taken a while ago as you can tell from the sign in the front, but our grass is now greener and the bushes are overgrowing. :) That's my project for tomorrow evening.
This is one of our bar stools that you will see where they are in a picture later on. We got these at a great price at JC Penny.
This is our dining room table and breakfast nook area. Another steal of a deal from Garden Ridge. You may remember those tree things from the wedding up at the front. They make nice additions to the house. Look for another set in these pictures....
Here is half of our kitchen. We had to pick up some new appliances from Lowe's due to some rather "worn out" items that came with the house. it will look great once I tile the backsplash and redo the countertops (a job for this summer sometime)
Here is our fridge. You can see my finger prints on the freezer as I was trying to get to the food rather quickly one day. I'll make sure to clean that off soon. Don't tell my wife. :) We picked this fridge up at IKEA at 50% off.
Here is our oven and toaster oven... I love that little thing... It can do literally everything!
A dark picture of our front room. We have a beautiful Bay window (I think that's what it's called) We plan on putting a chair and table in this area, but well... we're newlyweds, so when the money comes, the chair comes. No problem though... I find this is the best area to play Wii sports because I can't fall and break anything or hurt anyone. I really "get into it".
A nice picture of our washer/dryer and junk above it. Mrs. E did a great job organizing this. She is so awesome. I love my wife. (tell her about that part)
This is the spare bathroom. We really haven't done much in here yet since it rarely gets used (hurry and come visit us and this lovely room could be yours!) I want to thank Bed Bath and Beyond for their great price on shower curtains and whoever it was that gave us Bed Bath and Beyond gift cards for our wedding. Thank you!
Here is another picture of our breakfast nook. the picture in the background is St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. That is where we went on our honeymoon. Before we got married, I found this picture and had to buy it. It was hanging here when we got back and she saw it for the first time when we got back from our honeymoon.
This was another surprise to Steph when she finally got to her new home. I created these stretched canvass pictures on my Mac, printed them and framed them for her. If you can't read it, it is our vows. They were hanging on the wall when we got home too. She was very surprised!
Welcome to our front room. That green chair in the middle of the pic is so amazingly comfortable.
Here is a pic from the couch. We were blessed with this TV and other equipment. Many a nights of Wii have been played on this TV.
Finally, our fireplace. To position it in your head, to the left of this is the bay window and to the right of this is the TV.

Well, now you have been on part 1 tour of our house. Steph wouldn't let me take more pics until the other rooms were cleaned and I had to go to work, so I will put the rest of the rooms on next time. Hope you enjoyed your trip to our house, come visit again soon.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Things have been rather hectic lately around here. I am preparing to get the teens to Teen Camp at Triple-S camp this year, getting Evangelist Randy Hogue (motovational speaker) into the public schools in the area (having little luck) and trying to keep up the normal duties of youth pastor, IT dude and of course "World's Greatest Husband". I didn't quite understand what Pastor Trieber was always talking about when he said, "You will wear more hats in the ministry than you knew where available", but I am learning quickly. I'm also trying to get my graduation announcements out today as well. I think I'm running a little late, but it's the thought that counts.

We had the opportunity to go to Medieval Times this past week. The best part was, we only paid $4 in a tip to our waiter guy (thats all we had to our name last week) because it was a youth worker appreciation dinner. We had a great time. We then got a lot of things finished on saturday such as taking back the rest of the wedding gifts that we got double of (everything but a toaster to Macy's... They won't take it back unless we

get some more paperwork on it or something) and then we had a nice dinner - China City delivers... They messed our order up really bad...

NO FORTUNE COOKIES!!! and only half the order of egg roles... It was really good, but I don't know if we'll order delivery from them any more. Sunday was a great day in God's house. For more info on FBCoM Teen Church visit fbcomteen.blogspot.com.

am so excited about going to back to GSBC for graduation in a couple weeks. I really miss that place and I know that Steph does too. It will be good to see friends and family again.

Also, we are now on twitter. To follow me, my name is ceskelsen. Hope to see you on there soon. (twitter.com)

Married life

I think that married life is awesome. It is really nothing like I thought it would be though. I thought it would be like dating, you just go out every night to some nice restaurant, do some activity and then go home, climb in bed kiss goodnight and start all over the next morning. I'm not complaining at all, I'm loving married life, but it is nothing like that.

We still have yet to go on an official date since we've been married. There has been so little time since we've been back to get any time to go out... let alone money. Welcome to the ministry huh? We have finally set aside friday night for our first date night this week. We are going to go "The Cotton Patch". It is cheap, healthy and a really fun atmosphere.

The funniest part about married life to me is how exciting some things are when in real life, it sounds stupid, but so that you understand what I'm talking about I'll tell you a little story. We are trying to get as much as we can on as little as possible, so we have had to cut a few corners one of which being the grocery department. We have been going to the Walmart Supercenter near our house and getting food for a killing. It isn't the best, but it is cheap and it is keeping us alive. We got some coupons in the mail for a Tom Thumb (owned by Safeway) and decided to go there for groceries this past weekend. We were both so excited about going to "a real grocery store" for a change. They had so many options and it was so clean. We couldn't stop ranting and raving about how incredible a real grocery store is.

Well, married life is great and I love the adventures. I recommend to all. Don't forget about the grocery stores... They're great!

The Honeymoon

This is the train that we took from Venice to Rome. It was the Eurostar Italia and was high speed. It took us only 5 hours to get to Roma. Not too shabby of a ride, nothing like American trains.

Pistachio Gelato... The best thing about Italy. This specific gelato was found by our hotel in Venice. We found the best gelato in Italy near the Vatican in Rome however.

This was the balcony of the apartment that we stayed at in Rome. It was incredible! If you look at the top of the photo a little to the right you can see a dome... That is the dome of St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican City. We were on the top floor of the apartment building and had the most incredible apartment ever! Massimo Zoli is the best. If you ever go to Roma, make sure to get his name and number for me. It will be an unforgetful experience.

"Notice the yellow tables?" This picture will make a lot more sense once you visit our house. Before I left for wedding/honeymoon/cross country drive, I purchased a huge picture of Venice that is black and white except for the yellow tables and chairs. I hung it in our house for my new bride (and a Colosseo picture as well from Roma) and ensured that we sat in the yellow tables and chairs and annoyed her with saying, "Remember the yellow chairs that we're sitting in now ok?" So, here is quite possible one of the greatest cappachino's I've ever tasted and the view was breathtaking with gondolas, Basilica's, Canals and Doge's Palace all around us. Couldn't have been better...

I don't really remember where this pictures was taken, but I'm thinking it was on an airplane ride. We spent a lot of time on airplanes (direct flight from San Fransisco, CA to Amsterdam, Netherlands with service to Venice and then from Rome the same trip from Amsterdam back to SFO) It was so much fun though.

We are now back from our honeymoon and back at work. Our house is coming together as well (I will be posting some pictures of our house next week. Still waiting for a few furniture items that we'll hopefully pick up this week.

Our honeymoon was awesome. Italy was beautiful and the food was life changing as always. I really miss the cappuccino's. There really is nothing like the cappuccinos in St. Marco's square in Venice, Italy. It was a bit cold in Venice, but Rome was perfect. We also met up with my friend Mike and his wife Bree while there. It was so much fun. I only have pictures from my iPhone, but I'll get the rest from Steph's camera later this week and post more pictures.